Missouri should benefit as Congress looks to fix Medicare disparity

'Nantucket effort' costing local hospitals

1:01 AM,
Feb. 4, 2013

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Springfield hospital officials said they're pleased that federal legislators are looking at correcting a problem that is costing Missouri hospitals an estimated $15.6 million a year in Medicare payments.

The problem has a pair of catchy names: the "Nantucket effect" or the "Bay State boondoggle."

Massachusetts hospital officials used the way that hospitals are classified to funnel more money in Medicare payments to Massachusetts at the expense of hospitals in most of the rest of the United States - an extra $256.6 million to $367 million a year for the last two years. ...